Illinois Teacher Suspended for Assigning Classes Article About Homosexuality in the Animal Kingdom Returns to Class

UPDATED

After a school board meeting that went late into the night, members decided to give teacher Dan Delong a warning and allow him to return to class:

"Last night, a crowd of students showed up at DeLong's disciplinary hearing to show their support for the teacher. Following the meeting, Delong issued a joint statement with the Board of Education of Southwestern CUSD 9. 'I agree with the Board that the material in my class was not age appropriate for my sophomores and for that, I apologize. I understand the Board has decided that I shall receive a Notice of Remedial Warning,' he said in the statement. DeLong also said that the administration's concerns centered not on 'sexual preference or homophobic condemnation,' but rather 'the age appropriateness of the material.' DeLong's students say the reading material was optional. His supporters, which included former and current students, call DeLong and inspiration.' He gave you controversial issues and you got to choose your opinions on them were,' Katie Trombetta, a former student, said. 'He didn't put his beliefs on you. You got to figure out your own beliefs.'"

Watch a news report, AFTER THE JUMP...

Yesterday:

Dan Delong (pictured below, with one of his students), a teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois, has been suspended for assigning his classes an article that appeared in Seed magazine (you can read it here) about homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

The Telegraph reports: "Southwestern School District Superintendent Larry Elsea was not available for comment Wednesday or Thursday, nor was Marcus Albrecht, the union representative for the Illinois Education Association that represents the district's Southwestern Education Association members. According to an e-mail sent to The Telegraph from a former student, Delong has the support of more than 400 parents, students and friends, seeking to have him reinstated. The article that Delong had his students read was written by Jonah Lehrer and quotes Joan Roughgarden, a biology professor at Stanford University who challenges Darwinian sexual selection by documenting more than 450 animal species that engage in homosexual behaviors."

Said Delong: "I have been suspended, but not without pay. But I would rather not comment further until I speak with my union representative."

A special meeting of the school board is taking place tonight to discuss Piasa's fate.

Via Wicked Gay Blog, which reports: "My source tells me that DeLong is a straight married man with two kids who is an ally of the GLBT community and was simply trying to educate through this assignment."

There has been a Facebook page set up in support of Delong.

Watch a news report from local station KTVI, AFTER THE JUMP...

Former Gay Vulture Couple Has Chicks with New Mates

Dashik and Yehuda, two male vultures at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo who made headlines ten years ago for their gay romance, have since gone straight. But, if recent events at the zoo are any indication, the birds still appear to be operating on the same wavelength:

"Dashik, father to one vulture chick, and Yehuda, father to the other, once engaged in a fiery romance that made headlines in local and international media. About ten years ago, the two male vultures fell in love, built a joint nest and became a couple. The staff of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo provided the couple with an artificial egg, which the two parents took turns incubating; and 45 days later, the zoo replaced the egg with a real baby vulture. The two male vultures raised the chick together. A few years later, however, the relationship broke up, after Yehuda fell for a female vulture that was brought into the aviary. Dashik became depressed, and was eventually moved to the zoological research garden at Tel Aviv University. There, Dashik too set up a nest with a female vulture.  'This is an insane coincidence,' said Michal Erez, head of the birds section at the Jerusalem zoo, 'but the spouses of both Yehuda and Dashik laid an egg on the same day, the eggs hatched on the same April day, and the two chicks were exactly the same weight. Their weight can vary between 120 and 200 grams, and I've never seen two hatchlings of the exact same weight.'"

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Bill O'Reilly and Dennis Miller Didn't Make Up the Gay Penguin Story

Never mind they get the story wrong (the gay penguins hatched a chick — it was in 2005 that the same zoo imported female penguins to see if its gay male pairs would go straight), what's more important to O'Reilly and Miller is that the story gives them a chance to hoot at one another over lame "tight T-shirt" and "pre-colored egg" jokes. And don't forget the pre-op transsexuals. Always good for a laugh.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Gay Penguins Hatch, Adopt Chick in Germany

If you've been reading the site since 2005 you may remember that the Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany had three pairs of gay penguins it tried to make straight by importing females from Sweden. It didn't work.

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